Steve Lear

On February 20th, I had the opportunity to join high school juniors and seniors from Bloomington Public Schools for the Bloomington Empowers Networking and Leadership Conference. 

This event was a collaboration between personal finance teachers and community business partners to help students prepare for success outside the classroom. The SICK Sensor Intelligence Corporation in Bloomington was our host, generously providing meeting space for this day-long conference.  

The format was designed to encourage active engagement. Entertainer and entrepreneur Stevie Ray, founder of Stevie Ray’s Improv Company in Minneapolis, was the keynote speaker. He created a highly interactive two-hour learning experience, leading students through structured improv exercises, role-playing scenarios, and small-group activities. I was impressed with the way he gave each student an opportunity to communicate as they learned basic career skills, covering everything from how to shake hands to what to include in an elevator speech.  

This was followed by a presentation from Best Prep that previewed the programs they have developed to help students gain business, career, and financial literacy skills through hands-on experiences.  

I attended the conference as one of the business volunteers interacting with the students.  During meals, I was seated at tables with small groups of 2-5 participants, and this intimate setting fostered great questions, conversations, and connections about career readiness and financial literacy. 

I’d like to especially thank two personal finance teachers – Melissa Schroeder (Kennedy High School) and Eric Roesler (Jefferson High School) – for inviting me to participate. It was great to see these schools collaborate to organize a conference that gave students a place to practice what to say and do when they are searching for meaningful work.  

At the heart of this conference was the spirit of discovery – rather than controlling the message they wanted to convey through lectures and demonstrations, the educators set up a format that invited students to personally discover the skills they needed to master through interactions with their peers and local businesspeople.  

I was inspired by how engaged the students were with this learning format, and it confirmed that this is the right direction to pursue as SLO continues working to provide educational resources and opportunities for our youth. 

“Students gave boastingly positive reviews of the Bloomington Empowers Network and Leadership conference on February 20th, and we know it’s in large part due to your presence, enthusiasm, and willingness to bridge connections with students to industry and professionalism. We are incredibly grateful you were able to take time out of your schedule to join us and simply just be with our students, who are actively seeking insight into the career world they will soon integrate into. 

We are overwhelmed with the success of the event, and we hope you enjoyed the time spent with us and the connections you were able to make. Thank you for being a part of Bloomington Empowers. We look forward to having you again at our future events.”
~ Melissa Schroeder, MBA Business Education, Kennedy High School, Bloomington, MN